Background: Non-nutritive sucking habits may adversely affect the orofacial complex. This systematic literature\nreview aimed to find scientific evidence on the effect of pacifier sucking on orofacial structures.\nMethods: A search on MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Web of Science\ndatabases was conducted to find all pertinent articles published from inception until February 2018, based on the\nPreferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The quality of the studies\nwas evaluated using the risk of bias judgements in non-randomized studies of interventions (ROBINS-I).\nResults: Among the 2288 articles found, 17 articles met the selection criteria: seven prospective cohort studies, nine\ncross-sectional studies, and one randomized clinical trial. Using ROBINS-I, 12 studies were evaluated to have a\nserious overall risk of bias and five, a moderate one.\nThese studies claimed a strong association between a pacifier sucking habit and the presence of an anterior open\nbite and posterior crossbite. Functional/orthodontic pacifiers were shown to cause significantly less open bites than\nthe conventional ones.\nConclusions: High level of evidence of the effect of sucking habits on orofacial structures is missing. The available\nstudies show severe or moderate risk of bias; hence, the findings in the literature need to be very carefully evaluated.\nThere is moderate evidence that the use of pacifier is associated with anterior open bite and posterior crossbite, thus\naffecting the harmonious development of orofacial structures.\nFunctional/orthodontic pacifiers reduce the prevalence of open bite when compared to the conventional ones, but\nevidence is needed concerning the effects on posterior crossbite. Well-designed randomized controlled trials are\nneeded to further analyze the effects of functional/orthodontic and conventional pacifiers on orofacial structures.
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